By : Ali Mansour, MD, freedom-tale.blogspot.com, : Jackson Diehl in the Washington Post predicted the Obama administration will abandon Bush’s freedom agenda and democracy ....

By : IkhwanWeb : The Horn of Africa is considered one of the world’s hottest spots witnessing political instability and insecurity since ....

Other News

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Shameless in London, obscene in Israel, stupid in Ramallah The decision by the Buckingham palace to bestow an honorary knighthood on Israeli President Shimon Peres should be viewed as a blatant disregard for propriety and moral conduct by Queen Elizabeth II and the British government. It is also a definitive sign of the decadence of our time.

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Voices of the Street By all indications, this year has been the spring, summer, fall and winter of discontent. Public frustration has been building over stagnating wages and rising prices, sexual harassment and reports of torture and abuse of prisoners in police custody. Not so long ago, people would have complained more or less quietly around their kitchen tables and left it at that. But attitudes are changing as protestors take their complaints to the streets with little fear of who can hear them.

2	The Hijabi Monologues I’m a member of a group called BuSSy, which aims to raise awareness of women’s issues in Egypt. Every year, we put on a play which we call “the Egyptian version of the Vagina Monologues:” real stories written by real women.

2	Toxic brown cloud expected to appear in Egypt’s sky The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) warned of the passing of the “brown” cloud, which is full of toxic chemical material, over the Middle East.

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Begging Your Pardon Ibrahim Eissa remains a free man, if not exactly innocent in the eyes of the law. A presidential pardon issued October 6 meant the controversial editor in chief of independent daily Al-Dostour would not have to serve a two-month prison sentence for publishing false information that harmed national interests

2	New DCI report: increased settler attacks against children Today, Defence for Children International–Palestine Section (DCI/PS) released a report that documents the troubling extent of settler attacks perpetrated against Palestinian children in the Occupied Territory.

2	Muslim woman defies male dominance Amal Soliman, a 32-year-old Egyptian woman, has endured intimidation and ridicule in the year since she applied for a job as the Muslim world’s first mazouna, or female marriage registrar, but she says her victory has been worth the fight

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An Equal Stage The intricacies of democracy are a mystery, at least for many of the country’s rural poor — and especially for the politically and economically disenfranchised women of the agricultural heartlands of Egypt. But local councilors Fatheya Rezk Abdel-Rahman, Hoda Salah Sayed and Huwaida Abd El-Atti Abdullah from rural Assiut have achieved a unique victory: The three women won seats at the April 2008 local council elections. Like the non-governmental organization that encouraged them to run

2	Democracy Promotion in U.S. Foreign Policy Michael Allen at Democracy Digest points to a thread at the CFR Forum in which Peter Beinart asks the house: “how central is the promotion of liberal democracy to a liberal foreign policy?”

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Statesman Gaddafi Still Rules a Police State the Post, Mohamed Eljahmi, brother of jailed Libyan dissident Fathi Eljahmi, reminds us of the Libyan government’s miserable human rights record. As Libyan tyrant Moammar Gaddafi rejoins polite society, receives congratulatory phone calls from the U.S. president, and son Saif gets an audience with Secretary Rice, Libya remains a police state and democracy advocates like Eljahmi languish in Gaddafi’s dungeons.

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Should liberals promote liberal democracy? The new U.S Administration will inherit an intimidating array of foreign policy challenges, not least the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat of a nuclear Iran, a stagnant Middle East peace process, and addressing Russia’s resurgent authoritarianism. As in every other administration, there are likely to be internal differences on strategy and policy

2	Security Convention Stresses on Many Hot Files, Iraqi Islami... The Iraqi Islamic Party said on Wednesday, in its sixty-sixth memo, that the security convention in its last report stresses on the current stance and many hot files which need real reform.

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An internationalist president Barack Obama’s campaign victory was epic-making in America and across the Muslim world. On November 4, as soon as the election was called for Barack Obama, I began to receive congratulatory emails from friends in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Europe. Some had stayed up through the night to hear the final results. Of course, I wasn’t surprised at the global interest and support, which had been evident on recent visits to Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Where

2	Catholics and Muslims Pledge to Improve Links Catholic and Muslim leaders worked on Thursday to deflate suspicion between their two faiths, pledging at a high-level seminar here to work together to condemn terrorism, protect religious freedom and fight poverty.

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In Focus: Stealing Hope Four weeks ago, the Arabs were cursing the American model and gleefully anticipated its fall. It has fallen already because of the financial crisis that hit the global economy. But two weeks ago, everyone suddenly turned to hail the same model that gave Barack Obama the opportunity to become the first black president in American history